Amazing Hands: Fulfilling a Dream by Filling a Need
Our small business C-DEE program helped turn a dream of entrepreneurship into a reality.
A Passion for Care Inspires a Healthcare Staffing Business
Enoche Iwodi is the Co-founder and CEO of Amazing Hands Healthcare Staffing LLC in Concord, New Hampshire. A Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA), she started her nursing assistant career in 2020. And she loves her job — taking care of people and making sure that they're happy. She also realized that if she was to succeed, I will need to duplicate her depth of care and caring in other people. This thinking led to the idea of running an agency to staff nursing homes with LNAs.
Enoche tells the story best, “I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I've always wanted to own a business. Because I realized that, no matter how much you work, you can never buy back your time. You’ll be trading your time for money and I didn’t want that.”
She continued, “So I thought about what I could do. And being in the health care setting, I saw an opportunity. I love my job. So I felt that I could replicate what I do — how passionate I am with my job — in other people. And I also, and this can only happen when I have my own business. So it's like marrying my passions — what I want to do — with what I love to do. I want to be an entrepreneur, and I love to take care of people. I just married the two together and Amazing Hands was born.”
Amazing Hands launched in November of 2023 with two LNAs — Enoche and her business partner. And they’ve been growing rapidly. They expect to employ 25 to 30 staff across two facilities by the end of 2024 and anticipate closing out 2025 with 50 to 60 employees.
Powered by Persistence
As with many small businesses, Amazing Hands Healthcare Staffing was initially self-funded by its two founders. As they grew, they weren’t paying themselves. Instead they were using their personal income to pay new staff that they hired. This clearly wasn’t sustainable and they started to shop for a line of credit to cover their weekly payroll.
They went to traditional financial institutions in search of a line of credit. But they kept hearing the same story about why they were being denied — Your business is very young. It has to run for another 2-3 years.
But they were not discouraged. They kept saying to each other, “One day we're going to meet the right people who will take a chance on us. And will not disappoint them.”
By good fortune, they were shopping at a store in Concord and learned that the owner had received a small business loan from New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. Enoche asked for our address and they drove straight to our office.
C-DEE Success: Part 1
After Enoche and her partner met with one of our business lenders a few days later, it was clear to us that Amazing Hands was a viable business with significant growth potential.
While the application process was unfolding, our lender suggested that Enoche apply for the Community-Driven Economic Empowerment (C-DEE) Accelerator for entrepreneurs. The Accelerator provides capacity-building funding for New Hampshire entrepreneurs of color to help their businesses become financially resilient and self-sufficient. It’s a partnership between the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, the Manchester chapter of the NAACP, and the Business Alliance for People of Color.
A few weeks later, they got a call from our Director of Community Relations congratulating them for being one of the program awardees. Enoche shared her reaction, “We were very excited because it's really, really helped the business. We were able to buy computers. We were able to set up a mini office. Because before that time, we're doing everything manually.
We had papers all over. Now we have computers, printers — we have everything to run the business easily.”
C-DEE Success: Part 2
C-DEE awardees receive more than a grant that can be used for computer hardware and software, and for professional services. Grantees are also offered free business coaching or consulting with the Center for Women & Enterprise and the N.H. Small Business Development Center.
Enoche described the results to us this way, “It was awesome. [The consultant] made us see our business better than before. When we had business meetings with him, we had a structure, and it was wonderful. Community Loan Fund made that possible for us, because we didn't know about that — that we could talk to a consultant to help us structure our business.
Initially we had challenges here and there to get new contracts. But after [the consultation] we were able to launch out with more confidence. We were excited. And then, of course, we had the zeal. We had the passion to just keep pushing. And we became more committed because we see the business in even bigger lights. Like we know for sure that we have a very good business.”
A couple of months later, we were able to call Enoche with more good news — their application for a line of credit was approved!
Enoche was ecstatic, “Oh my God, it was one of the best days of my life, you know, seeing your dream come true, seeing that you can do all that you have envisioned, all that you have dreamt of doing. So it was a dream come true for myself and my business partner, Michael. I was so, so very, very happy.
And, what we asked for was what we were given. It wasn't like they (Community Loan Fund) gave us something less than what we asked for. What we requested for was what we were given. And not only that, they said, “As the business grows, the line of credit can increase.” I mean, that’s awesome.”
Being approved for the line of credit made Amazing Hands the first C-DEE grant recipient to also become a qualified borrower with Community Loan Fund. A tremendous accomplishment for a company that provides services that are in high demand.
Numbers to Build a Business On
The story of Amazing Hands Healthcare Staffing is just in its second chapter. The data highlights how small investments made possible by our neighbors-investing-in-neighbors strategy sets up small New Hampshire businesses for success.
$5,000
C-DEE grant amount that gave Amazing Hands modernize their operations.
50-60
Employees expected by the end of 2025. They started with two in November 2023.
2
Nursing home facilities using Amazing Hands staffing services in 2024 with plans to double in a year.
2020
The year when Enoche began her career as a Licensed Nursing Assistant after immigrating from Nigeria.
An Amazing Story
Enoche Iwodi, the Co-founder and CEO of Amazing Hands Healthcare Staffing talks about working with New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and becoming a C-DEE grantee.
Working with Community Loan Fund has really, really helped our business tremendously. And, we're looking forward to great things happening in the nearest future. We have a target. We have a goal. And we’re seeing it happen.
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